Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

A break in the rain this week?

Forecast models cranking out drier weather through Saturday

Twin Cities area forecast at a glance
Twin Cities area forecast at a glance.
Twin Cities National Weather Service office

Call it the Soggy Summer of 2024.

I started counting rain days since the beginning of meteorological summer on June 1. Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport recorded at least a trace of rain on 18 of 30 days in June. July brought rain on 16 of 23 days so far this month.

Add it all up and the 11.27 inches of rain since June 1 in the Twin Cities is almost 3 inches above normal.

We’ve only managed to string together four dry days in a row since June 1. No precipitation was recorded at MSP airport between June 23-26 and July 16-19. No wonder we’re getting swarmed by a bumper crop of mosquitoes this year.

Drier skies ahead

It looks like we have a chance to string together five dry days in a row for most of Minnesota.

Forecast models push slightly drier air into Minnesota from the northeast this week. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s NAM 3 km model shows drier dew points in the 50s easing into much of Minnesota from an air mass over Lake Superior through Wednesday.

NOAA NAM 3 km model
North American Mesoscale 3 km model dew point output through 7 a.m. Wednesday
NOAA, via Tropical Tidbits

NOAA’s Global Forecast System model agrees with other models that favor a drier high-pressure system across the Upper Midwest into Saturday.

NOAA GFS model
Global Forecast System model Tuesday through Saturday
NOAA, via Tropical Tidbits

Highs Wednesday will be refreshingly moderate with 70s.

Forecast high temperatures Wednesday
Forecast high temperatures Wednesday
NOAA

Temperatures gradually warm this week through the 80s across most of Minnesota. By this weekend, highs will be close to 90 degrees in much of our state.

Forecast high temperatures Saturday
Forecast high temperatures Saturday
NOAA

There’s usually a chance for some localized rainfall to pop up during the summer months, but our next chance for any widespread rainfall appears to arrive late Sunday into Monday. Let’s see how many dry days we can string together,

Enjoy the respite.